Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Call me Beowulf

Sprecka and I went on the long neighborhood run yesterday and we were awesome. We slew Grendel and Grendel's mother!

It's one of many mind games I play with myself as I'm running. You know. Yesterday I didn't feel like running at all so I tell myself: "You only have to do the short run today. 35 Minutes max." Then I start feeling pretty good so I tell myself: "You only have to do the medium run today." Farther into it, I'm feeling pretty good so I tell myself: "Let's do the big run today!" 20 Minutes later, I'm beginning to tire, so I tell myself: "Just run to the next block." I get to the block and I set a new goal, and so on.

The problem with this particular run is that after running 4 miles, you are faced with not just one bugger of a hill, but two!!!

Pull out the big gun mind games.

Norm and I watched Grendel this weekend, which took me back to college and reading Beowulf. As I was facing the first monster hill I named it Grendel. Perfect.

To bring back life to the barren land I, Beowulf, must slay Grendel. Fortunately I have my trusty companion, Sprecka by my side who is fearless in the face of this monstrous evil in front of us. We attack!! We fight. The monster tries its tricks but we are unfazed. We cut off its arm and slay the beast.

Victory!!

My companion and I bask in the glory at the top of the hill and we have a lovely respite for awhile, catching our breath, savoring our victory. But what is that ahead of us? Oh no!! The horribly awesome mass of Grendel's mother rises before us, standing between us and our homeland. She's ticked - we killed her son, so we must die, slowly and painfully.

We attack again, and again. She keeps coming at us but we dig deep and once again, WE ARE VICTORIOUS. The beast is dead and we stand on top of the hill.

My companion and I barely have any breath left for cheering but our hearts are light as we begin the last small hill (I have opted not to name it), heading for home.